The iconic T-800 from The Terminator and its sequels has had many onscreen deaths. The killing machine has been frightening audiences and hunting down both humans and other killer robots alike since 1984, and even with the middling reception to most Terminator projects since Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the franchise seems intent on running as far into the future as it can. And no matter how many more Terminator movies are in the pipeline, the T-800 will likely keep returning to both kill and be killed.
The T-800 represents the pinnacle of Skynet's technological prowess. Designed to blend in with humans and infiltrate resistance bases, the T-800's durable metal body is covered in organic tissue in order to make it look perfectly human. However, Skynet eventually found a new use for these murderous machines and newer, more advanced infiltrators like the T-1000: send them back in time to eliminate the eventual human threat before it can rise to challenge them.
Throughout the Terminator film franchise, multiple T-800s (usually played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) have made the journey into the past to either kill characters like Sara and John Connor or protect them thanks to reprogramming from the future resistance. More often than not, their missions usually end in their own destruction. In fact, 2015's Terminator Genisys is the only Terminator film where Arnie's T-800 survives to the end of the movie. However, most other T-800s aren't so lucky and are either destroyed by the human heroes, sacrifice themselves, or fall victim to other killing machines. Here's a look at every time a T-800 bit the dust in a Terminator film.
Getting Crushed (The Terminator)
In the original 1984 film that started it all, a T-800 is sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son John would one day rise to lead humanity to victory against the machines. After pursuing Sarah and her protector, Kyle Reese, for several days, the T-800 finally catches up with them and attempts to run them down in a truck. When Kyle manages to explode the truck, the robot emerges from the fire, its skin burnt away to reveal its chrome skeleton. The chase brings Sarah, Kyle, and the T-800 to a factory where Kyle sacrifices himself to blow the terminator to bits. Unfortunately, not even this destroys the robot, and its upper half continues chasing Sara. Thinking quickly, Sara is able to trap the T-800 in one of the factory's hydraulic presses and, as it reaches desperately for her face, she presses the activation button and crushes the machine until it finally expires.
Getting Shot (Terminator 2)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day opens with a battle scene set in the future, and depicts a group of resistance soldiers facing down an army of skinless T-800s. The human warriors — led by an older and battle-scarred John Connor — bravely charge into battle, and are able to withstand the wall of killer robots as they advance. In a brief shot within this sequence, a damaged T-800 can be seen laying on the ground, struggling to stand up. However, as the camera pans up, a resistance righter runs to the downed terminator, takes aim at its head, and shoots it multiple times, presumably destroying it.
Sacrifice in Steel (Terminator 2)
The more famous T-800 death from Terminator 2, and one of the most iconic self-sacrifices in film history, is that of Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 protagonist. Reprogramed in the future to protect John Connor while he was still a child, this T-800 is devoted to both Sarah and John and fights to defend them from Skynet's latest killer robot: the polymorphic T-1000. In the film's dramatic climax, Arnie's T-800 regretfully informs Sara and John that the future cannot be re-written unless all traces of future technology are removed from the pre-Judgment Day present. With the original terminator's recovered CPU chip and arm destroyed in a vat of molten steel, the heroic T-800 asks Sara to lower him into the vat to destroy the final traces of the future's presence in the past. She agrees, and with one last hug from John and a legendary final thumbs-up, the T-800 sinks into the steel, shutting down and (at least for the time being) saving the future.
Nuclear Detonation (Terminator 3)
In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, a new robotic protector is sent back in time to defend John Connor and ensure that he survives the impending Judgment Day. While the model of terminator that Arnie plays in this film is technically a more advanced T-850, the character is still essentially a T-800. One of the major differences between this model and the old one is its power source; the T-850 is powered by two nuclear cells but is capable of functioning with only one. Early in the film, one of the T-850's cells is damaged, and once removed, it explodes into a giant mushroom cloud. During the climax, Arnie once again sacrifices himself to ensure John's safety, and stuffs his remaining power cell down the throat of the film's terminator antagonist: the T-X. When the unstable cell explodes, both the T-X and the T-850 are blown to bits.
Decapitation (Terminator Salvation)
The climax of 2009's Terminator Salvation has John Connor and Marcus Wright face off against an early version of the iconic T-800. Known as the T-700, this model is physically identical to the T-800 but lacks the free will of future models. In the film, Connor discovers a Skynet factory that's producing an army of T-700s and is eventually able to wire the robots' nuclear power cells to explode and destroy the whole place. Before this happens, a T-700 is able to deliver a near-fatal stab wound to Connor, and Marcus retaliates by ripping the robot's head clean off.
Another Nuclear Detonation (Terminator: Dark Fate)
After being allowed to live in Terminator: Genisys, the T-800 once again met its death via explosion in 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate. In the alternate timeline created by John Connor's death, another evil artificial intelligence sends a killer robot known as the Rev-9 back in time to kill future resistance leader Dani Ramos. Defending her is the cybernetically enhanced Grace, an older Sara Connor, and a T-800 named Carl. In the end, Carl is able to use Grace's nuclear power cell to destroy the Rev-9 by employing a trick seen earlier in the Terminator franchise: it causes an explosion that destroys them both.